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As I have mentioned before, I’m out in North Carolina with Adrian Wilson while Wilson waits to get his high school jersey number retired tonight at his former high school. It’s a huge deal to A-Dub, who has always felt legacy — in the NFL, and even from his high school days — is so important. Wilson wants to make his mark in this world — “a good mark” as he told me — and this is part of that. (Here is the link to the local story about the event).

So yesterday, he took myself and Johnny Hayward from the broadcasting department (and his closest friends, Adrian Mack and Anthony Johnson) on a two-hour-plus trip around his hometown of High Point, pointing out places he had been when he grew up and taking us to his high school — including the weight room (pictured below) where Adrian Wilson first began turning into A-Dub.

This is a “BIG DEAL” for Wilson…congratulations and enjoy every minute. All of us work hard and few of us get the recognition. Great to see someone who has loyalty to his high school to be a part of this for them. Glad he wants to spend his career in Phoenix and hope management keeps him. Business has gotten so competitive that it’s hard to be able to keep good players and still pay them fairly.

Wilson is right up there with Aeneas Williams as one of the greatest and classiest Cardinal players of my life-time ( 45 years ) and maybe then some. Williams devoted as much of his career to the Cardinals as he could until he realized he just wasn’t going to taste any post-season glory here. When he left, there was no bitterness for me at all. I wished him well and cheered the Rame when they won the Super Bowl with him. But I don’t want to see it play out that way with Wilson. Now that we HAVE had the post-season glory these past few years, it’s a whole different feeling. There’s a feeling that it can happen here, so Wilson doesn’t have to go anywhere! And I hope he never does.